Are you planning a big holiday celebration next week? I am; although things will be fairly quiet in my home on Christmas Day, our big celebration will actually take place Saturday night with some dear friends. There will be presents, and a wonderfully large dinner.

I’m doing what I can to make our celebration eco-friendly and fair trade. All the gifts I purchased this year are either fair trade, gently used, or handmade by artisans.

Which leaves our holiday dinner…can you have a fair trade and eco-friendly holiday dinner?

Sure!

1. Bake with Fairly Traded Ingredients

I can’t say I’m much of a cook; I mainly leave that to my husband. My talent revolves around baking; I love making homemade breads, cookies, and cakes!

You can make your own holiday dinner more sustainable by using fairly traded ingredients. You can purchase fair trade chocolate, spices, sugar, or even a baking mix to cook with. You can serve fairly traded coffee or tea with dessert.

If you need some ideas, check out this wonderful recipe from Fair Trade USA: Chocolate Mousse Cake with Vanilla Cardamom Swirl. The recipe is fantastic, and uses many fair trade ingredients. Here’s a picture from their site…doesn’t it look delicious?

2. Give a Fair Trade or Eco-Friendly Gift

I’ve been writing a great deal about fair trade gifts this year. Giving a fair trade gifts is one of the best ways to make a real difference this holiday season. Fair trade gifts not only show your love to others, but they also directly help support an artisan (usually a woman) somewhere else in the world. Every fair trade purchase helps that woman feed her family, provide better health care to her children, and send them to school. That’s a powerful chain reaction from just one purchase.

You could also give a gift basket full of fair trade items; this is a wonderful idea for the fair trade campaigners in your life.